The Academy - Hoax Read online

  “That’s not what I meant,” I said. “I didn’t say I needed space. I just…needed…”

  The elevator shifted behind the doors, reminding me we were a little exposed in the hallway, and I quieted. Once we got to Fancy’s suite, it would be difficult to talk; I needed to hear him out.

  And tell him everything.

  Yet would it do any good to tell him what I needed to tell him about Blake, and about how I felt, out in the middle of this hallway?

  Axel motioned for me to keep quiet as we tiptoed to Fancy’s door.

  He knocked. We waited.

  Nothing.

  “Is she out?” I whispered. If she was still out trying to weasel information out of people via flirting, could she come back? I hoped she wasn’t inside with someone. I didn’t want to walk into Fancy and some guy in her room.

  “Shh,” he said and pulled a key card from his pocket. He used it and opened the door a crack, peeking inside. He opened it further, stuck his head in. “Fancy?”

  No response.

  It was too dark for me to see into the room. My heart pounded, and I kept an eye out down the hallway and toward the elevator and stairs. I felt exposed out here; even this early in the morning, someone could still be walking around, like Colt.

  Axel flicked on the light and stepped inside. I shuffled in behind him and quickly closed the door.

  The suite had a small sitting area, but the couch and coffee table were overloaded with two trunks of clothes. There were also clothes and towels on the floor, and some dresses on the bed. The couch was covered in bikini tops and underwear.

  The bed was empty, freshly made except for the clothes on top. She hadn’t been in here all night.

  We stepped further into the room. The door to the bathroom was open, the inside dark. Fancy wasn’t here.

  “Where is she?” I asked. “At a bar?”

  Axel crossed the room, looking inside the bathroom, turning on the light. He spoke, but not to me. “I need a location on Fancy.”

  He listened as he inspected the bathroom. I waited by the suite’s main door, just in case.

  After a moment, he turned to me and said, “She’s in the pool. I thought those closed at night. She’s still with her guy. They can’t get her to respond right now. Maybe she can’t say anything without drawing suspicion from her target.” He stilled for a moment and then winced. “I don’t know if you want to know what they’re doing.”

  I hoped Fancy wasn’t feeling pressured to do more than she wanted—especially not for my sake.

  “We’re sure she’s not the one who threw me overboard?” I asked, even though I knew the answer. I probably would have noticed her fingernails or the clink of the jewelry she was wearing. She was so flashy, there’s no way I wouldn’t have recognized her.

  Axel bent into the tub and cleared out some wet towels, tucking them into a corner. He pulled the shower curtain aside further. “The first time when Blake went over, she was talking to one of the guests in the hallway. I saw the video. When she went in with you to find out where he went, she left you to go down the hallway into a second balcony. She returned when Doyle said you needed help, but got there too late. Didn’t see anyone. She checked every room along the hall, screaming after you until a few of us got there to calm her down.”

  I was suddenly very sorry to have even suggested it. She drove me crazy, but she had a solid-gold heart. “She knows I’m back, doesn’t she?” I asked.

  “They’ve been trying to get word to her,” he said. “She knows you are alive, but I don’t know how much she heard about you returning.” He stood in the doorway of the bathroom, checking around the room again. Her suite had an ocean view, and he went to the window to lower the privacy curtain. “I don’t want to leave you alone, but I might have to go get her, and the others are busy on the other side of the ship.”

  “We should go after her,” I said. I took two steps further into the room, feeling like a lump of dirt among all of Fancy’s pretty things and in her nice suite. I was afraid to touch or even sit down in case I shook off all the sand.

  “No,” he said. His dark eyes looked right at me, and he pressed his lips together. He was trying to make a decision. Finally, he nodded. “We should stay. She might never come back up here. I don’t want to risk running into someone like Colt with you right next to me. Doyle can’t watch ten of us and direct us all at once. We can’t risk exposing to anyone that you’re back.” He paused, his gaze trailing up and down my body. “I can’t risk leaving you alone.”

  The strength in his tone at that last sentence sent warmth to my heart and cheeks.

  “How come she goes out on her own?” I asked.

  “She can’t have someone like me or Corey hovering around her while she’s trying to flirt with people. It would be too noticeable at this early hour to be lingering in the same areas.”

  Perhaps he was right. “Maybe we can just stay. We don’t even know if she’ll be back soon.” I pointed to the bathroom. “Is it safe to shower? Can you stay nearby just in case she comes back?”

  He looked at me from across the room, a hard stare, his expression stoic. He was impossible to read.

  I was about to say something else when he moved quickly toward me.

  Again, I stood still. We were alone, him and me, no one else.

  He dug the earpiece out of his ear as he came up to me. He put it in his pants pocket and then reached for my shoulders.

  I let him, anticipating another hug. My heart went wild.

  His strong hands held my shoulders, and he looked at my face with those wide dark eyes. “I should never have let you go alone,” he whispered. “I should have been there…followed you…”

  “It’s not your fault,” I said. “I had Fancy with me. It was my mistake asking her to check things out down the hallway and not going with her. And Doyle was listening…”

  “Blake had Doyle, too,” he said. “It wasn’t enough.” His hold on my shoulders shifted, smoothing up to my neck. His hands drifted until he was cupping my cheeks again. His head tilted toward mine. “We broke the rules splitting up, and I knew it. I’ll never make that mistake again.”

  I pressed my lips together, and as my brain was telling me I was getting too close again, my heart was pounding and I was drawn to his touch.

  I knew I was gross and needed a shower, but I couldn’t help wanting this. He didn’t push me away. I leaned my face against his palm, pressing my cheek against it.

  It was a small move, but he drew me closer to him, and his lips met my brow. I closed my eyes, simply feeling him as close as he was.

  He whispered, “Tell me I haven’t lost you.”

  What could I say to that?

  Still, I knew the truth. I couldn’t keep it from him. We couldn’t fall back into the mistakes I’d made before.

  I pulled away gently and met his uncertain gaze. “I’m not lost,” I said, “but we do need to talk.” Just to show I meant it, I took his hand from my cheek and held it, tugging him toward the bathroom. “Stay nearby while I shower.”

  His jaw was firm and his eyes remained on my face. He followed me into the bathroom.

  Fancy’s suite was large, with a full-sized tub and extra space, so the two of us were cozy, but I had room to move around while he leaned against the counter.

  I had to close the door to make room. The air within the bathroom was damp. With the suite being on a higher deck, I noticed as the ship rocked slightly.

  I froze when I caught a look at myself in the mirror. The hoodie did little to hide my mess of hair. Dark shadows were under my green eyes. I felt like a lump of grossness. My cheeks were splotched red.

  I sighed and touched my forehead, feeling the sand and dirt at my hairline. The moment I did, I felt thousands of grains of sand on my body, like little gnats biting at my skin. I started scratching all over until I was raw and couldn’t stand it anymore.

  I raked a fingernail across
some sand and found it painful to peel it away. After a few tries, I turned and surveyed the room for soap and a clean towel.

  Axel remained quiet, leaning against the door frame as I focused on myself for a few minutes and what I was doing. Fancy had a few shoes and clothes piled up near the sink and on the floor. She had a brush and makeup off to one side of the counter. The ship provided a hair dryer and some shampoo and soap. Luckily there was one clean, dry towel left.

  There was a wet towel on the closed toilet. I peeled the towel off the seat and dropped it on the floor so I could sit. I pushed the black sweats off my body, stripping until I was naked.

  Axel watched every move. He’d seen me naked before, but this time, he didn’t bother hiding the fact that he was looking at my body.

  I tried not to blush but liked that he was looking. Before, he would pretend not to be interested, and it always bugged me.

  But his interest reinforced the necessity for me to start talking. As I gathered my thoughts, I dropped my dirty clothes onto the wet towel, then flaked off what sand I could and tried to shake my hair out.

  “I need to tell you what happened,” I said. “I mean, after I went over.”

  And I told him.

  I spoke about how I’d almost drowned. I told him how Blake had saved me and how we’d swum to the beach.

  That, after making sure we were both okay, we’d ended up having sex on the beach.

  He said nothing while I talked, and I didn’t dare look at his face. I’d never been so honest with him before about anything, and I worried I’d never get to the end if I had to look at his eyes.

  “The next thing I knew, I was awake and naked in the hotel room and…”

  I had leaned over the tub, reaching to turn on the hot water, when I heard a loud bang. The bathroom rattled and I had a small heart attack, thinking it was Axel, maybe punching the wall, but when I looked up, he hadn’t moved.

  He motioned to me to leave the water off and remain silent, before he glanced at the closed bathroom door.

  “Ugh. Fuck this shit door.” Fancy’s usually feminine voice was a little muffled through the walls, but I could still recognize her.

  Then there was a click and then the scrape of a door, the main one from the hallway. She was in the room.

  So much for hearing what Axel had to say. I looked him, but he was impossible to read and totally focused on the door, and then he shifted to hover by the door, ready and waiting.

  Fancy had probably come back to the room to sleep. I didn’t want to spook her. I was about to call out to her to let her know we were here, when she said something, her voice low and muffled. She wasn’t talking to us.

  Then who exactly was she talking to?

  Axel fished the earpiece out of his pocket and put it in his ear. He held the door open just a sliver, peeking out.

  I took up the clean towel and wrapped it around my body. I stood behind Axel, waiting. Sometimes Fancy talked to herself, and I only hoped that was the case.

  I heard another voice, distinctly male, and not Fancy’s usual male voice. “Nice place,” he said. “Not as nice as you.”

  The voice was older, mature…and seductive.

  Oh God…

  “Babycakes”—Fancy’s voice lightened in pitch, more feminine, and she giggled—“you haven’t even seen the nice part yet.”

  Axel kept the bathroom door open a crack and remained where he was. My eyes, despite not wanting to, went immediately to the crack, and I bent around Axel to peek out.

  He tried to shove me behind the door, and I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t want to be seen either, but I also couldn’t help wanting to see what was going on. I angled myself until I could see through the crack, and I had a full view of the bed.

  Fancy was sitting on the edge of it, wearing her yellow bikini, bright against her dark skin. Her arms and neck were covered in jewelry of all sizes, rings stacked on her fingers and necklaces layered on top of each other. Bracelets rattled against one another.

  Her knees parted, revealing everything to whoever she was with. Whoever was in front of her would have to be blind not to see her male genitals.

  The man said nothing, but I heard a shuffling noise and wasn’t exactly sure what he might be doing. Who was he?

  Fancy pulled her rings off her fingers, tossing them casually on one corner of the bed. She was licking her lips and looking longingly at someone I couldn’t see.

  She curled her fingers at him. “Come on in,” she said.

  Did she know we were here? Sometimes she enjoyed making Axel uncomfortable, but I didn’t think she’d go this far.

  The man approached her, finally in my line of view. He had graying hair, a muscled figure and strong-looking limbs, though I couldn’t see his face. His arms and back were hairy, and he wore a thick gold watch. There were wrinkles on his hands and sun spots on his skin. He wore a tight Speedo and he angled his groin toward her.

  Erm. Not my type, but was Fancy into older guys?

  “I like a tease,” he said. “But why don’t we get that little bitty bikini off of you?”

  I swallowed and sank to the floor slowly. I wanted to crawl into the corner and not watch, but I had to pay attention in case they decided to come in here at any point. I pressed my back to Axel’s legs, and he stood firm where he was.

  I wasn’t sure what I’d do if they saw us peeking out at them. I also couldn’t stop looking out there. It was like a horror film I couldn’t peel my eyes away from.

  Fancy looked up at the man’s face and puckered her thick lips, the red lipstick vibrant and glittery. She reached around her back, untying the string to her top and exposing herself to him. Her crafted breasts were bubbles on her frame, too perfectly perky to be real. She puffed her chest out as she dropped the bikini on top of her pile of rings.

  The man stepped forward, reaching out to touch one breast. I stared at the mole on his back, and the mountain of hair he had all along his shoulders and down his spine.

  Ugh. I couldn’t watch! I covered my face but peeked through my fingers, my eyes wide. I nudged Axel’s leg, urging him to say something.

  He remained still, his hand on the door, the other on the wall as he leaned, giving me space to watch.

  Shouldn’t we say something? The fact that he hadn’t made me wonder if he knew who the man was. Maybe what was happening was too important to interrupt.

  Fancy smacked his hand away with a teasing grin. “Nuh-uh,” she said and then winked at the man. She moved her hands over her own breasts, covering her nipples and spreading her legs further apart, giving him full view of her manhood that protruded out of her bikini bottoms. “Someone promised to worship me like the goddess I am. Someone better keep his promise.”

  The guy knelt in front of her instantly. “You’re so hot,” he said. “I’m going to make you gush like a waterfall.”

  I held back the urge to cry out in frustration. Please, please don’t do this right now, I thought. I was so tired. So itchy. All I wanted was a shower and some sleep. Maybe I should have opted to stay with Doyle.

  I sat back on my heels, my hand covering my mouth. I couldn’t watch anymore. I couldn’t start the shower, but maybe I could crawl into the tub and sleep through this. We could lock the door and hide in here until they went away.

  There was a sudden thud, and then a shaking of the wall nearby. Axel’s arm muscles tightened on the door to stop it from moving.

  “Open this door!” A woman’s high-pitched voice came from outside the room.

  I peeked out again, ready with fists, not caring if I was naked or if I got blamed for being in the middle of this. I just needed to get out of here and to somewhere not so insane. I held on to Axel’s leg to give myself some leverage to stand if I needed.

  The man stood up, reaching for a feathery pink robe that was on the floor. “Shit! How’d she find me?”

  Fancy stood up, mouth open, her hands covering her breasts. �
��She? You’re married?”

  “I can hear you in there! Open up!” the woman yelled, pounding on the door again.

  I cringed, though I was happy someone had come along. My whole body was stiff. I could have cried. Take him away! Drag him out by his ear. Serves him right.

  The man grabbed Fancy’s arm, hauled her up, looked around the room and then headed toward the bathroom.

  No! I scrambled to get up, but the only place to escape to was the tub.

  I didn’t have to think long, because Axel scooped me up into his arms and stepped sideways into the tub, hiding in the corner.

  “You can’t do this to me,” Fancy said as she was shoved into the bathroom, wearing just her bikini bottoms.

  She landed on the floor in a heap on top of my clothes.

  The door shut solidly. Before Fancy got up, I heard the door to the hallway opening.

  Axel set me down on my feet and went to the door again, stepping over Fancy to do it. His hand was on the door handle, ready.

  Fancy blinked at Axel, trying to straighten herself and get up.

  “What are you doing in there?” the wife said.

  “Honey, it’s nothing,” the man said in a weird high-pitched voice. “I helped a woman to her room is all.”

  “Like hell you did,” she said.

  Fancy was on her feet, scolding eyes on Axel, reaching for his hand that was holding the handle.

  She was going to open the door! I lunged at her and we collided on the tile. She grasped me, and then the counter, holding herself up to stop herself from falling. She pushed me, warding me off.

  “Don’t!” I hissed. The last thing I wanted was some catfight between her and this wife. If security got called, my cover would be blown.

  Fancy spun on me, her man-hands grabbing me by the elbows. Her eyes went wide, the false lashes fluttering as her lips made an O shape for a minute. “You…” she said in a whisper. “You’re here? You’re alive?” She closed her arms around me, drawing me in until her boobs were squished up against mine in the towel. “Oh my God!” she squeaked. “I can’t believe it!”

  Axel gave us both a death glare, warning us to be quiet.